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Published: October 21st 2012
La Sagrada Familia
The crazy masterpiece of Anton Gaudi. Construction started in 1886 and won't be completed until 2026, or later!After spending one week in the vibrant, bustling city of Barcelona, I have come to realize that this city has a surprise at every turn. One minute you are window shopping on Passeig de Gracia at ritzy stores like Hermes and Gucci, and the next, you are on the famous La Rambla, bartering for pet ducklings (hopefully not for consumption) and varied exotic plants. Or as you walk through the winding, narrow, cobble-stone paths of the Barrio Gotic, all of a sudden you stumble upon a traditional Pastelera selling
churros con chocolat, mere steps away from a pink modern store selling of all things, “Happy Pills”. All of this makes you start to expect the unexpected. If it doesn’t hit you right away, then upon closer inspection, there always seems to be a surprise…
Gaudi and Architecture The main draw to Barcelona are the works of the architect Anton Gaudi, who designed
La Sagrada Familia, Casa Mila and
Parc Guell, to name a few. While all of his works vary in style, they never fail to surprise. You can be walking down a street with traditional turn of the century architecture, and out of nowhere pops
a strange curvy building with a colorful lizard-scale rooftop and balconies that look like skulls. It certainly makes you pause! Well ahead of his time (he died in 1926), Gaudi’s works are completely unexpected and make you question whether he was suffering from delusions, either brought upon by an illness or from illicit substances. You may hate the melting ice-cream nativity façade at Sagrada, or think the helmeted warrior chimneys on the rooftop of Casa Mila are bizarre, but Gaudi’s genius cannot be denied.
Exhibitionism? On a totally different note, Barcelona also has some fantastic beaches. As we heard that they were man-made, we had low expectations. However, we were pleasantly surprised that Barceloneta was a wide beautiful beach. What did surprise us was the completely naked man picking his way unabashedly through the sunbathers on the beach. Now this would be completely expected if it were a nude beach, but he was the only one! Leave it to Sidd to spot him…
Asha y la comida Being slightly overzealous parents, we have not given Asha much candy, although for some reason she full recognizes pictures of jellybeans and smarties and
Stare Down
Yikes! Asha staring down the goat heads. begs ,“please, please”. I have some doubts as to whether g’ma and g’pa haven’t bribed her with some sweets! At any rate, here in Barcelona, Asha has had quite a few “treats”, including churros (Spanish fried donuts), meringue and chocolate pineapple. No longer are cheerios and dried fruit enough to appease her when whiney.
What was unexpected was Asha’s reaction to her first lollipop. We were enjoying a tapas feast at a cramped tiny restaurant and the fussy monkey was presented with a chuppa-chuppa lollipop. Instead of instantly devouring it, Asha surprisingly swapped it out for some delicious garlicky white fish. This made for some grumpy parents as we both didn’t want to share the fish with her!
Another unexpected Asha food moment occurred while wandering through the bustling market called
La Boqueria. We had paused to admire the beautiful display of cheeses and cured hams and upon turning, found Asha frozen, staring wide-eyed at an equally wide-eyed goat head. Apparently goat heads along with the trotters are delicacies found commonly at restaurants here in Barcelona. I’m not sure if we will be adventurous enough to try this, but we did find that Asha liked whole fried sardines
Casa Mila Rooftop
The helmeted warriors on top of the roof. Why are they there? Who knows... - just like fried chips, but not quite!
What’s next??? As our week draws to close here in Barcelona, we have come expect the unexpected, especially when traveling with two kids under the age of two. Some surprises are unpleasant, such as not finding the elevators in the metro station when dealing with a double stroller and luggage, but more often than not, the surprises are the most memorable parts of our trip. Off to San Sebastian!
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Hani
non-member comment
And you looked disgusted when I offered you fried sardines ... Guess I had to be in Barcelona.